


Almost as Intense as Volleyball

by strange_nut_pirate



Series: OTP Prompt Oneshots [13]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Accidental Confession, Bickering, Confessions, M/M, Pining, Rivalry, most of it’s then bickering ngl, oblivious kagehina, the boys are a bit too dumb to understand, they got the right idea tho, theyre just a bit confused
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:34:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25393939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strange_nut_pirate/pseuds/strange_nut_pirate
Summary: Shouyou has felt weird about Kageyama for a while now. He would be extremely happy when he was with him, and sad when he wasn’t. When he thought of him, he would feel burning with energy, and slightly burned out at other times. But that didn’t make any sense, especially since Kageyama was one of the most annoying people he’s ever known. Other than naming it his ‘Bakageyama Feelings’, He can’t find a way to describe this muddled, paradoxical feeling, but maybe Kageyama can.In which case, Shouyou confesses to Kageyama without the two even realising it.(Set after the canon run in with Ushijima at Shiratorizawa)
Relationships: Hinata Shouyou/Kageyama Tobio
Series: OTP Prompt Oneshots [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1657651
Comments: 6
Kudos: 105





	Almost as Intense as Volleyball

**Author's Note:**

> It’s a sad day in the Haikyuu fandom, with the manga ending and all. So in dedication to my favourite anime’s manga coming to a close, I’ve written this following the prompts. It’s not very good but it’s what it is (also I probably should’ve written an iwaoi fic since it’s oikawa’s birthday too but I wrote this oneshot ages ago and it doesn’t fit the prompt as well as Kagehina does so it is what it is).
> 
> Hope y’all enjoy nevertheless! 🧡🖤🧡🖤
> 
> All prompts from: https://drink-it-write-it.tumblr.com/post/189074732022/200-prompts

**“Look, I know you’re a hardass, but can you play with my hair? It would really help.”**

A hand shot out from Kageyama’s body at lightning speed, gripping Shouyou’s head and roughly squeezing it.

 _“Play! Jeez, Kageyama, PLAY!”_ Shouyou squealed, his hands trying to pry Kageyama’s death grip off of him.

“This is playing!” Kageyama exclaimed, but his grip slackened.

Shouyou immediately pushed his hand away, glaring at the taller guy.

“Who you calling weak?” He said loudly, puffing his chest out on instinct. 

Kageyama rolled his eyes in exasperation.

Shouyou knew he couldn't intimidate him like that, or anyone for that matter. Not by himself, anyway. When he was on the court, spiking for Kageyama, he felt that he was unstoppable, and untouchable. Maybe that kind of confidence is what you needed to be scary, but Shouyou could never quite take it too seriously in any other situation other than volleyball. 

But even when playing, Kageyama still was the one that made him feel invincible like that. He was the one always helping Shouyou accomplish things. It should’ve annoyed Shouyou more than it did.

Kageyama had started to walk at a quicker pace, or maybe that was his normal pace, and Shouyou’s short legs felt it more. Just one of the many problems of being short, was trying to constantly catch up with everyone, who always called you a ‘slow walker’, but really, it was just their insufferable height. It sparked Shouyou to skip a few steps ahead of the raven headed boy.

“Stop dragging your feet,” Shouyou said playfully, knowing _this_ was how to get a rise out of him.

“Shut up, I’m not dragging anything!” Kageyama retorted. “Seriously, did Sugawara-san die and make you mom?”

Shouyou just hummed innocently. Kageyama contemplated for a second, then spoke up again.

“Oh right, you’re a midget. That’s why you have to move your legs so much to walk in front of me.”

Shouyou knew Kageyama was trying to rile him, but he didn’t care. It worked every time, and there was something fun and exhilarating about being worked up by him anyway. 

“You’re a dumbass for not noticing sooner,” Shouyou said, and shortly after, Kageyama had reached out to grab a fistful of Shouyou’s bright, orange hair again. “Ouch! Ouch! Maniac!” 

Kageyama let go, letting Shouyou pat his head and mutter about his murder grip. He still felt the ghost of Kageyama’s fingers through his hair when he stopped.

“If you keep screaming bloody murder, someone is going to think there’s something more happening, come running over, and then you’ll have to explain,” Kageyama sniffed, not the least bit sorry.

“Yeah, I can explain, or you can demonstrate. They’ll understand as soon as their hair is getting pulled by you.”

Shouyou was always annoyed by Kageyama, and he was quite sure Kageyama was even more annoyed with him. But, being in a constant state of something kinda dulled the experience after a while. So Shouyou stopped focusing on how much Kageyama annoyed him one day, and started focusing on other things.

Like right now, Kageyama was a good distraction from Shiratorizawa. And that beast on their volleyball team, Ushijima Wakatoshi.

Shouyou had told him that Karasuno was going to defeat Shiratorizawa, and for the most part, he was (and _still_ was) quite certain. Ushijima had looked at him like he was dumb, and Shouyou could understand why. Most people thought the way Ushijima did. But Shouyou was also certain he had come this far because he had the mindset he had, so yes, Karasuno would best Shiratorizawa. He didn’t know how yet, but they would. He was sure of it.

But Shiratorizawa was amazing. That much, Shouyou could recognise. And at first, he was absolutely enchanted by the players. It was inspiring, since they were everything Shouyou dreamed of becoming, and he was enthralled with each powerful serve, targeted spike, and smooth receive. If Kageyama wasn’t there to stop him, he probably would’ve entered the gym and tried to train right along with them. However, walking back now, Shouyou was starting to feel slightly sick. He admired Shiratorizawa’s skill, but he would’ve admired them more if Karasuno didn’t have to verse them so soon.

So, here Kageyama was, distracting him from what he just saw. Shouyou had hardly ever been nervous that his team would lose, and he wasn’t really now, but he _was_ unsettled nevertheless. It was the type of uncomfortable, weighty stirring in his stomach right before a match, and though he didn’t feel as if he were going to throw up, he felt nauseous enough to be in need of a bathroom.

“Don’t tell me you’re worried about the match with Shiratorizawa,” Kageyama sighed, and Shouyou’s head snapped towards him attentively. He realised belatedly that they were also walking side-by-side with each other.

His first thought was that Kageyama was psychic. But if he was psychic, he would’ve bullied Shouyou even more than he did. Shouyou hated to think of Kageyama knowing everything Shouyou thought of him. He also hated his cheeks for betraying him and going very hot very quickly.

“What makes you think that?” Shouyou said, his voice higher-pitched than usual.

“You have such an expressive face,” Kageyama answered easily, and Shouyou immediately thought of Kenma, “that it would take an idiot not to immediately know what you’re thinking.”

“But you are an idiot, Kageyama,” Shouyou replied, which earned a standard nudge from the taller boy, and even though Kageyama didn't put much force into it, it did cause Shouyou to stumble a bit.

“I know you,” Kageyama said, shrugging simply, but it made Shouyou feel weightless and invincible. Just like how he felt on the court sometimes. He got annoyed at himself for feeling like this for no reason around Kageyama, and he was also annoyed that Kageyama was the only one to make him feel this elated. However, there was also another side to this addicting emotion. It was bittersweet, and though Shouyou felt light and joyful, he also hurt. It was confusing. And after a while, Shouyou just gave up on trying to put a name to the feeling and called it ‘His Bakageyama Feelings.’ He didn’t have enough brain power for it. 

But maybe Kageyama did.

Shouyou sneaked a peek at him.

He felt an urge to confess everything he’d been feeling recently to his setter, get his logical and brutal verdict on it, and also see if he wasn’t alone. But at the same time, Shouyou felt strangely vulnerable. Like if Kageyama teased him about it, Shouyou would be astoundingly hurt. He didn’t want to be in pain, and he had a feeling that whatever was happening to him could be very dangerous.

Maybe he was sick?

“Sugawara-san said they’re going to meet up with us at the coach’s shop. It’s close by, and apparently they’re already there,” Kageyama said, glancing at his phone. “Daichi-san is going to kill us.”

Shouyou could _just_ comprehend Kageyama glancing at him.

“Why do you look so concentrated?” He said, almost worried. Then his face shifted back into that scary normal face he always had on. “You look dumb.”

Curiosity beat logic. It always did when it came down to Shouyou. 

“Kageyama,” Shouyou started. “I’m confused.”

“As you mostly are,” he snorted, and Shouyou chose to ignore him.

“Do you know sometimes… when you feel like… all light and like you can do anything?”

“Words, Hinata. You need to use them better.”

“It’s like…” Shouyou struggled to follow Kageyama’s advice. “It’s like you feel unstoppable, but also, kind of… unsafe?”

“Like, what? powerless?”

“I guess.”

“That makes no sense at all, you feel unstoppable but powerless? Is this because of Shiratorizawa?”

“No, it’s not because of that!” Shouyou huffed. “It’s an amazing feeling, but it’s also a horrible one. It’s hard to explain!”

Now, Shouyou was incredibly frustrated. He didn’t even know why. He just really wanted Kageyama to know what he was talking about. He racked his brain, trying to come up with a phrase to make him understand. 

“Okay, so… you know how we’re on the court, and you set the ball to me super fast, and I hit it and we win a point, and it’s super satisfying?” Shouyou asked hastily, and Kageyama nodded and listened raptly. “But even though it’s amazing, your palm stings a lot from hitting it?”

Kageyama seemed to mull it over in his mind.

“Well,” he started, “I don’t spike, so it doesn’t hurt me that much. But I think I can understand it a bit. Like when I serve sometimes.”

Shouyou nodded. 

“It’s a little like that. Like it hurts a bit, but you’re so overcome with happiness, that the hurting part doesn’t matter.”

Kageyama was staring at Shouyou with a strange look on his face. Shouyou fretted under his intense stare, suddenly feeling very vulnerable and very seen. Which only confused him more because isn’t that what he wanted? He wanted Kageyama to understand, didn’t he?

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Shouyou shuddered.

“Are you feeling it now?” Kageyama asked.

Shouyou stopped walking briefly and concentrated on all of the anxiousness rolling around inside of him. He looked at Kageyama, dark inky hair lined with the orange glow from the late setting of the sun, nose red from the cold wind biting at the two of them, shaded navy eyes set on Shouyou as if he was focusing too, mouth pulled down in a slight frown.

“Yeah,” he murmured, instinctively holding his stomach like he was sick. Maybe he was, since it felt all fluttery and that combined with the rolling nervousness he felt beforehand wasn’t a very good mix. Maybe this was a bad idea after all.

“Maybe you need to eat,” Kageyama offered.

“Maybe,” Hinata said, but he didn’t believe it.

“So that’s the good part of the feeling,” Kageyama went on. “Is there a bad part?”

Shouyou nodded vigorously. Kageyama waited.

“It’s like, when you completely miss the spike, or the other team is just so much more powerful than you, and you know they’re so unreachable, they’re so much better than you, and you feel helpless.” 

And _why_ were Shouyou’s eyes burning? That was _not_ part of the plan! He was overcome with this sudden urge to run away from Kageyama, and not speak to him for a very long time. He needed to leave, escape, calm down. Kageyama wasn’t saying anything, and Shouyou couldn’t find it in himself to look at him. Ukai’s shop was just around the corner, and he could hear the faint voices of Noya and Tanaka. But Shouyou felt he couldn’t move, and would just pass away on the spot if Bakageyama didn’t say something soon.

Shouyou slapped himself in the face.

“Jesus!” Kageyama exclaimed, recoiling. “Why’d you do that? Dumbass!”

Shouyou took a deep breath, his vision clearing and his heartbeat returning to normal, but his face stung. _It was fine, this is fine, Kageyama called me a dumbass which is normal of him so nothing has changed, everything’s okay—_

“Is that it?” He heard Kageyama ask.

_Just spit it out, you’ve already come this far!_

“It’s almost as intense as volleyball,” Shouyou said, and Kageyama sucked in a breath. This was how they both knew it was serious. 

Very, _very_ serious.

There was a buzzing silence, as Shouyou waited for what Kageyama was going to say.

“How long have you been feeling this?” He asked softly.

“I don’t know,” Shouyou said. “I think it’s been there for a while, but it just grew and grew more and more like… like a balloon! And just when you think it can’t get any bigger, it gets bigger! And it’s so painful, sometimes you just want it to pop. Like bam! And then it’s over. But you’re scared of the balloon popping, because you don’t know what would happen if it did.”

Kageyama was quiet again, so Shouyou took this as his chance to say the thing he was most scared of saying.

“I only feel this way with you,” Shouyou said, and his face reddened. “Like, when you’re with me, or when I’m thinking about you, and it annoys me, kinda like how you annoy me most of the time, but yeah. That’s why I’m asking you, I guess.”

If Shouyou was nervous about the match with Shiratorizawa, he felt tenfold about what Kageyama would say next. His stomach rumbled in protest to the extra stress, and he wanted to tell it to shut up so Kageyama could think without being interrupted. He expected to be made fun of, to let Kageyama blame it on puberty or because Shouyou hasn’t eaten anything recently, or just have Kageyama call him dumb as hell and walk off without even mentioning this weird conversation again.

He didn’t expect Kageyama to say, “Same.”

Shouyou looked up at him in surprise, the first time he took a proper look at him and didn’t feel jittery since they stopped walking. Kageyama, however, was looking away, too flustered and red to bring himself to look at Shouyou. That was pleasing, at least.

“Why do we feel this weird way around each other?” Shouyou whined, throwing his hands up. “It’s so inconvenient. How are we supposed to verse Shiratorizawa like this? Do you think it’s to do with volleyball? Like, everyone feels this way towards their setters and spikers or something?”

Kageyama nodded slowly, his cheeks still a bit red but his expression concentrated and Shouyou could tell he was still processing Shouyou’s suggestion.

“Maybe,” he said finally.

“Have you felt this way with anyone else before?”

Kageyama shook his head purposefully.

“No,” he said firmly. “You’re the first. I definitely didn’t think about Kindaichi the same way I think about you.”

Kageyama cringed at the concept of it.

“Well, I’ve felt this before!” Shouyou chirped, getting Kageyama’s attention. “I remember when I was on the girl’s volleyball team, there was this senpai who was _amazing_ at spikes. She could’ve been a real ace! I think maybe she’s what inspired me to aim further than just being a regular spiker, but an ace too!”

Kageyama nodded in understanding.

“Well, maybe it’s admiration?”

“No,” Shouyou wrinkled his nose at the thought. “No, I admire _way_ more people than you, Kageyama, and I don’t feel this way about them.”

“Oh, really?” Kageyama said hotly, putting his hands on his hips. “Like who?”

“Tanaka-senpai, Asahi-san, Noya-san, Bokuto-san, Suga-san, Daichi-san, Kiyoko-san, my mom, my dad, Kenma, Kuroo, Aone—”

“Alright, you can stop now.”

“Besides, didn’t you used to admire Oikawa?”

Kageyama seemed to short wire, his eyes widening, and then narrowing again, accompanied with a scowl as he thought of the Great King. He was quiet for a moment, just scowling and glaring at whatever thought he had of his previous mentor at the moment.

“Ew,” he said with finality, and Shouyou nodded in understanding.

“But this isn’t just to do with volleyball, though, is it?” Shouyou rambled on, before Kageyama’s scowl could deepen and ruin his mood. “Like, I don’t have to think of volleyball and you to feel this way, I just have to think of _you.”_

Kageyama grunted in affirmation, meaning Shouyou was right. 

Maybe they were sick? Maybe this is what playing volleyball meant? 

When Shouyou asked his mother what he was feeling for his senpai back in Junior High, she had laughed and called it a ‘crush.’ So that’s what he had taken it as. But if he had a crush on Kageyama, well, that wouldn’t make any sense at all! He was Kageyama’s rival, not some starry-eyed, lovesick teenager. He couldn’t be smashing Kageyama in volleyball whilst holding his hand and sketching love hearts with their names in his maths work book off the court. He couldn’t be taunting Kageyama and nagging him for sets whilst kissing him and… and doing all that lovey-dovey stuff! But even as he thought of being romantic with Kageyama, his heart did a little satisfied loop in his chest.

Shouyou swallowed.

Uh-oh.

He looked at Kageyama, and could basically see the steam coming out of his ears as he tried to sort his emotions out. Shouyou could relate. What happened when you had a crush on a scary, annoying and socially-awkward athlete that you wanted to so badly pulverise in volleyball? Was that even a crush?

“This is hard,” Shouyou said finally.

“I know,” he replied quickly in frustration, “you’re so annoying but all I want to do is just—”

He grabbed Shouyou’s head again, running his rough fingers through his bright curls, and Shouyou was prepared to shriek for help, but strangely enough, Kageyama wasn’t being too harsh. It actually felt… sort of nice.

“Hey, that feels kinda good,” Shouyou told him.

“Yeah?” Kageyama said, surprised.

“Yeah, as long as you’re not violent about it, you can do this as much as you want.”

Kageyama’s mouth quipped you into something akin to an evil grin, and Shouyou was about to retract that statement when they heard their teammates shouting at one another about pork buns or something of the sort. Just then, it dawned on Shouyou how hungry he was.

“How about this?” He said. “We can work together to fix each other from this weird thing we have. That, and we can also ask Suga-san about this, because Suga-san knows everything! And then life will be as easy as it was before these Bakageyama Feelings.”

Kageyama scowled at him, a thin eyebrow raised.

“What?”

“That’s what I call them. My Bakageyama Feelings.”

“Huh, funny you should say that. I call them my Orange Boke Emotions.”

“You do not!”

“Yes.”

They glowered at each other for a minute, and then Kageyama spoke up.

“Okay, we’ll see how it goes,” he said, answering Shouyou’s last suggestion, and just like that, the glowering was over like it had never started in the first place. They continued to walk to where the Karasuno boys were fighting over who got the extra pork bun. 

Shouyou beamed. They were going to help each other out, for sure. He and Kageyama made a good pair.

A pang in his chest.

A flush in his cheeks.

A smile on his lips.

There were those feelings.

**Author's Note:**

> And then dadchi smacked the shit out of them for running off :)


End file.
